Tony Vitello reveals impact his father has on coaching career

Tennessee baseball coach Tony Vitello revealed how his father impacted his coaching career. Amid adversity this season, Tennessee managed to get its way to the College World Series.

This is the second time Vitello led the Volunteers to this point and he certainly thanked his father for advice and encouragement. Vitello’s father Greg, a former baseball coach at De Smet, had plenty of words of wisdom.

The younger Vitello followed them and opened up on how he leaned on his players amid this season.

“Yeah, you know, I think for me the players get out there,” Vitello said. “When you talk about being in Omaha, all of a sudden you can look up and be like, holy cow, there’s big crowds in the SEC, but this is a big crowd.

“Then this is also the park you’re dreaming of playing in. Well, if you have a good foundation of work ethic and things you’ve done in the weight room and preparation and all that, it should be easy to take a deep breath and say just go do it.”

Basically, Tony Vitello had to stick to his coaching philosophy and the positive results would come in.

“For me I’m young and I have to lean on Coach Anderson a lot and still kind of trying to find my way,” Vitello said. “But when there are moments of difficulty or we need to try something new, I think the foundation I got just from being around him every day is the most beneficial.

“That doesn’t mean in a season like this his encouragement or maybe his words to the guys or cracking a joke at maybe a valuable time doesn’t carry some weight, but I really just feel like the foundation in general is one that is strong.”

The Volunteers head coach provided another analogy to listening to his father’s advice.

“I’m not saying it about myself, but it’s kind of the old house thing,” Vitello said. “Like, you want to have a house that’s got a good foundation, and the rest is kind of icing on the cake. So for me, again, being around him all those years, he can say stuff to me now, and sometimes it’s needed. 

“Sometimes it’s not because maybe it’s after a loss where you don’t want to talk or something like that, but I can hear that voice right now. Anything he is going to say, I’ve heard about every version of it in different varying tones, and all beneficial.”